In conventional food preparation and cooking environments, a cooking apparatus or system such as a stove, oven or grill can employ a variety of heat sources to cook food. In general, such cooking systems can utilize various configurations of heat sources to apply thermal energy (heat) to food items via convection, radiant, and/or conductive heat transfer mediums. During the food preparation process, conventional cooking systems operate to heat food items for a predetermined amount of time to modify the texture and appearance of the food, to make the food more palatable and to eliminate impurities in the food items. In a restaurant or commercial food service environment, food preparation equipment such as grilling systems are often employed to cook foods such as meats, fish and poultry. Such food preparation equipment generally provides a higher volume of cooking output than conventional home cooking appliances. In a restaurant environment, cooking appliances may be expected to quickly cook large quantities of food for discriminating diners. Accordingly, conventional food preparation equipment is designed to deliver the proper amount of heat in a relatively short time so as to enable efficient diner turnaround. Further, the heat delivery in conventional cooking systems attempts to avoid uneven or extreme heat delivery that can cook food unevenly. Finally, conventional food preparation equipment typically consumes electrical, gas and/or petroleum utilities, and given the high volume of cooking output, unutilized or misdirected heat generation inefficiently consumes these resources.